Piezoelectric transducers are used in a broad range of devices including accelerometers, microphones, resonators, voltage generators, ultrasonic welding and cleaning devices, and microstepping and micropumping devices. Conventional piezoelectric transducers comprise one or more uniformly polarized piezoelectric elements with attached surface electrodes. The three most common transducer configurations are multilayer ceramic, monomorph or bimorph, and flextensional composite transducers. To activate a transducer, a voltage is applied across its electrodes thereby creating an electric field throughout the piezoelectric elements. This field induces a change in the geometry of the piezoelectric elements resulting in elongation, contraction, or shear or combinations thereof. The distortion in each element tends to be uniform due to the fact that the piezoelectric properties of the element and the applied electric field are uniform throughout the element. The induced geometric distortion of the elements can be used to implement motion or perform work. However, a drawback of conventional piezoelectric transducers is that two or more bonded piezoelectric elements are often needed to implement a desired distortion such as bending. Moreover, when multiple bonded elements are used, stress induced in the elements due to their constrained motion can damage or fracture an element due to abrupt changes in material properties and strain at material interfaces.